John Key’s New Zealand.
People living in cars, garages, in cold mouldy houses and on the street.
Children go to school without food.
Our suicide rates, imprisonment rates, domestic abuse rates, obesity and levels of inequality soars.
Unemployment levels rise.
Debt levels keep climbing.
Housing both owned and rented becomes unaffordable to more and more people.
Meanwhile our corrupt and venal ruling class, led by an ex banker Key, takes the side of the global uber rich against the interests of NZ citizens.
What an ugly, selfish and cruel place we have become.
I don’t think Winz has Security guards at the door to keep people with weapons out. More likely the people trying to access all this HELP that Mr Key is confident that Winz is just waiting there to immediately assist. He would be “very surprised”!!! if Winz didn’t do this. I would be BLOODY AMAZED and SHOCKED! if they DID.
The Salvation Army and the Mangere Budgeting Service say the government can’t continue to ignore the growing numbers of people forced to live in cars, shipping containers and garages.
Of course it can. National have been ignoring poverty for decades now and haven’t lost a wink of sleep over it.
“People are sort of halving their garage and having one family on one side of the garage, and another family on the other. These are the sorts of situations that are now emerging in this housing crisis,” he said.
And probably charging a pretty penny for it as well.
Speaking to Morning Report today, Prime Minister John Key said it was not acceptable that people were living in cars or under bridges.
Mr Key said people in those circumstances should seek help from Work and Income.
He said he would be amazed if the agency left people living in cars, particularly if children were involved.
Says all the right words while putting in place policies that prevent that from actually happening.
Mr Key said the government was doing what it could to help people in housing difficulty…
Yeah, like kicking people off of benefits for no reason whatsoever.
Mr Key said the government’s approach, including encouraging community groups to provide housing, would help.
Well, I suppose that it will help a few rich people get richer. Won’t help the people actually in trouble though.
$1.2 billion of state money is apparently going to private landlords to house poor people in often poor housing. A lot of good quality state and public housing could be built or renovated with that money. With some firm regulations to keep rents down we could house everyone well again. This has happened in the past in NZ so could be done again.
I was appalled at Nick Smiths arrogance and denial on the weekend political shows. Especially so in light of the damning footage of people living in cars and the proliferation of families living in garages. The human cost especially for the kids brought up in those situations must be horrendous. Not the New Zealand I ever thought id see.
It seems his Namesake in Kaikoura is afflicted with a similar dose of arrogance.
“Smith said he had visited various social agencies around Blenheim but had not spent time at John’s Kitchen. He said he had a full diary and had no plans to visit the Blenheim social service.”
Just like Todd Barclay. Another arrogant and entitled Nat in a safe rural seat.
I see Winston is taking it to the Nats with a public meeting in Gore next week. I think they smell blood with Barclay. Maybe he should stop in at Kaikoura on the way home.
A 17 minute video which does a really good job of summing up what happening in USA. I’d suggest you skip across the clapping part at start and get into the real meat of the topic Abby Martin is talking about.
Like her observation that Bernie Sanders, for all the criticism that anyone may want to throw at him, has taken the essential message of Occupy: the sentiment the mainstream wanted to shut down and shut out – and he’s taken it right into the heart of the mainstream.
I have real problems with Sanders, but when Abby said that – I thought she is right. And I think the longer Sanders keeps in the race, the more the message will sink in.
17 more attack pieces on Sanders in the New York Journal last week. That is 16 more than against Trump. So he must be doing something right.
Is there a market in NZ for an Abby Martin or a Bernie Sanders? Andrew could maybe but where could he get a forum? TV? Radio? Newspaper? Live audience? With the News tied up by the Right and a well oiled machine to undermine alternative voices how can we get such a message as Abby’s out there? Oh Dear!
We have voices like Abby Martin. Did you forget you were commenting on an alternative news source ianmac.
The idea is not to despair. Indeed, voices are being heard. Ideas are out there. It’s not all about the labour party.
We have a voice, we only have this system, because we let it happen. And the more people react around the globe, slowly but surly people here will get the message too.
Because tax cut, and the free market are not delivering freedom and liberty for all.
Not sure what you mean by alternative news source though. We are interested so we click “play”, but can you imagine Puckish Rogue or Matthew Hooton clicking on?
You may have noticed I don’t read much NZ news, a few links from here. For me it’s the evening report, and scoop every-other day. I just don’t do the so call MSM or as I call them, the corporate media.
I read a lot of international news, and that take on NZ is rather different. Actually, I find it funny when I read the likes of Puckish and others, they have no idea what the rest of the world thinks. And seem to enjoy it that way.
I don’t care what Puckish or Hooten click or not. I’m more interested in a informed, engaged, hopeful, and democratic readership.
The point is that many of us on the “Left” are sympathetic to the urgency for a fair and inclusive society, but this does not reach the PRs or the Hootens. The Key believers who I know are allergic to any such talk. So the question is still how do we engage at least “middle” swinging voters?
“Prime Minister John Key has signalled National will campaign in 2017 on a $3 billion package of tax cuts.”
English says not likely. Key says yes.
See what they are doing? Testing the waters since tax cuts benefit mostly the rich, it may not be politic to actually deliver more tax cuts for the rich.
Yeah – I’ve just read that as well. Today’s Herald online. You think they”re testing the waters, ianmac ? Maybe they are.
Or maybe they’re preparing everyone for a big fudging of the country’s economy (ie hey we have a surplus, we can now give that away to our voters !) Whichever it is, I’m pretty sure we’re going to see some big pork barrel politics rolled out next year.
Yuk ! and it’ll be very grubby …….
I think Jenny, that previous tax cuts were seen as good for the rich and the Middle-poor saw it as pretty mean. So they are careful this time to make sure that it is their supporters who are happy. Litmus test?
I am attracted to the notion that the gov create money to say build state houses, and then use the income to help repay the notional debt.
Keeps the bankers out of the cycle too.
“A frantic backlash has followed a remark by London’s ex-mayor, Boris Johnson, who said modern EU bureaucracy pursues the same goals as previous European “integrators” Napoleon and Hitler did and thus creates a “massive democratic void.”…
At the moment, the cost of getting electricity from the source to the consumer is spread evenly….regardless of where you live.
This is about to change….
“Based on all the signals from the Electricity Authority to date, I am picking that the Transmission Pricing Methodology will go significantly towards a beneficiary-pays approach rather than a one-price-for-everyone that is in place at the moment,” he said.
“It is likely to produce much more efficient investments in transmission assets over time.”
In its proposal last June, the authority estimated some power bills would fall and some stay the same. However Auckland and Northland would pay 4.5 percent more and the Far North and the West Coast 10 percent more.”
OK…so power users are now “beneficiaries” and those “beneficiaries” living in two of the most economically challenged areas of New Zealand will be paying 10% more for transmission charges.
Consumers in the Far North already pay eye watering power bills…
Marlborough had its own dam to supply much of our electricity, but under the Bradford reforms small dams such as ours were instead given to the main grid. Our daily line charge is $1.99 per day or $61.69 per month. In the city I believe it is far less per day.
So I think the line charges will increase under the User Pays plan that the Electricity Authority is looking for. And those in the country at the end of a line will pay more. Great for Dairy farms?
Ouch dv. Recently I changed from my $1.99 per day to 33cents per day by signing up as a Low User. We pay more per Kw @ 33cents per kw. But as long as we stay under 8,000 kw per year we gain on the deal. ie 22kw per day is the break even point.
I read somewhere yesterday that a person working for a provider (Mercury?) was told to avoid offering Low User and try to divert customers onto different contract. Mmm.
Maybe that was because they are trying to protect people who sign up for the low rate getting pummeled when they go over the limit. It’s not going to be suitable for most customers with families.
User pays strikes again by pushing the price up. More profits for the already rich sourced from the most impoverished.
You’d almost think that the government was trying to push people out of those places by making it so that the people already there can’t afford to live there. Is this about cleaning out the impoverished from desirable areas to make way for the uber rich that NZs becoming a bolt-hole for?
It’s the opposite. It is passing costs on to those that are not located close to power sources. That should advantage many regional consumers and businesses who live close to power sources. This is good for most places except Auckland north. The west coast would be better off if they had managed to be allowed to build the hydro schemes they wanted
Wow. Do you actually read the tripe that you write?
Advantaging people who live closer to power supply than those that live further away pushes people who live further away to move closer thus causing those regional towns to close down, to become Zombie Towns.
Most of the so called zombie towns are closer to power supplies than Auckland . So cheaper power would (in theory) help make them more attractive and less zombie like.
You want to deny much of regional NZ the benefit of lower power costs by forcing them to pay the same as wealthy aucklanders
As it is if there’s any subsidies, and I doubt if there are, it will be from Auckland to the rest of the country. If this change goes ahead then there really will be subsidies – from the rest of the country to Auckland as the rest of the countries prices go up – especially those in poorer areas.
At a national level it really doesn’t cost any more to maintain the lines in Northland than in Auckland. Charging some areas more and some areas less isn’t about economics or incentives but about making more profit for the lines companies/generators.
At a national level it really doesn’t cost any more to maintain the lines in Northland than in Auckland.
Maybe not (although I suspect there’s more in the way of tree trimming and suchlike in rural areas, and farther travel times for the crews).
However, the cost of getting the power from the source to the local 240V area would vary wildly according to distance (both in maintenance and power loss), durability, and accessibility.
You’re wrong. We are talking about the relative cost of shifting power from a generator to a consumer. It is in fact a lot more expensive to build 100km of power line than it is to build 50km.
Auckland has no substantial power plants nearby except Huntley, which doesn’t run all the time and is reducing output. So Auckland’s power has to travel a lot further than say Dunedin’s. You also get greater line losses. Yet Dunedin power companies are basically charged the same per mw as Auckland power companies and for no other reason than it’s easier.
It is not in the interest of the lines companies to promote a distributed renewable generation model and they have by anti-competitive and pricing models held the inevitable move to such a system back for as long as they could . now the end game begins
It is in fact a lot more expensive to build 100km of power line than it is to build 50km.
Good job I didn’t say build then isn’t it.
Yet Dunedin power companies are basically charged the same per mw as Auckland power companies and for no other reason than it’s easier.
And fairer considering that we all paid to build the infrastructure equally.
Splitting things up like this actually breaks the economy and the scale that building nationally produces. That’s what we’ve been seeing for the last thirty years and why things keep getting more expensive.
You cant just maintain the grid you sometimes have to build new stuff. Just recently 470m was spent on new lines in auckland. Another billion was spent on lines to Auckland. All this gets paid for by consumers. Your method makes it much more expensive because there is no pressure to keep down costs. If aucklanders were faced with fully funding the infrastructure they benefit from, they might have gone for less costly options. Remember much of this new investment was the result of socialized transpowwer not actually maintaining the network adequately.
Yeah, but do you appreciate the factors involved – distance, voltage, conductor size, equipment sizing, selection and siting, workmanship, power factor, unbalanced/unequal phase/load distribution, leakage, overloading, abnormal operating conditions – and that’s only transmission.
And to my mind, a better system would be to require those that use over a standard amount – a higher usage charge.
I remember a few years ago, hearing that some households have a power bill of over $700/wk. This usage reflected the need to keep the pool heated, the landscaping lights on, the multiple power vampire appliances on standby.
At the time, a discussion was being had regarding the necessity to upgrade the power infrastructure. I thought then – and I still do – that charges (like taxes) should be progressive, if you are using significantly more than a standard amount for the number of people living in your household then you pay a higher usage charge.
Yep. Nationalised power generation and reticulation. Each household/business gets a set amount per month free (fully covered by taxes) which is enough to run a household on and after that they get charged and as they use more they get charged more per kilowatt.
This implements actual supply and demand. The people who demand more pay more. As it is we actually have it around the other way with those who demand more paying less per unit. This incentivises incredibly poor economics.
I think National are in deep trouble and are becomingly increasingly desperate.
Key’s “ejection” from debating chamber, Matt Hooton’s “deeply “sanitised column, and now “look here, tax cuts” are panic responses to the current mess.
NZers are not happy at links to corruption and the smirching of our country’s reputation. More principled conservatives are uneasy.
The TPP ram-it-through-as-quickly-as-possible approach is not going down well, the housing situation is beyond crisis and younger people are becoming more politised as they see their future being affected detrimentally by poor current political choices.
Parata’s school funding changes will probably initiate a revolt…all good!
Well it is possible that National are in deep trouble I don’t think they are, they certainly would have been had the Panama Papers come up with anything substantial but as it is its reinforced the notion that Labour are crying wolf and, surprisingly to my mind at least, that the Greens are more level headed of the opposition
I suspect that the worries you share are not shared with the voting public however as its my own opinion I may well be wrong so, unfortunately, we’ll just have to wait for the next opinion polls to come out
I think it’ll be bad news for Labour, minor negative news for National, good news for Winston First and minor positive news for the Greens in that whatever voted National loses will go to Winston and some of what Labour loses will go to the Greens
The first time the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement was brought before Whanganui District Council, it sparked a walkout……..
The TPP will be back before council this month when the local authority will again be asked to consider the impact the 12-nation deal will have on its business.
TPPA Action Whanganui has made a submission to the annual plan, asking council to consider a range of areas it believes to be threatened by the agreement.
Among the action group’s concerns are the council’s ability to control water rights, to procure work from local businesses and its support of iwi rights.
“The demands of the TPP threaten all of the above and council needs to do its homework and plan to put measures in place, removing all present weaknesses around these matters before possible ratification of the TPP,” spokeswoman Denise Lockett said. She believed some council business would be undermined by the trade agreement and urged council to fight to retain its decision-making power.
According to the Director General of the UN office in Geneva, the number one reason people leave Syria is not to escape war, it’s to find educational opportunities for their vast numbers of children – well their solution is really simple: stop mindless shooting, build your own universities, and work hard to pay for them like we in the West do – simple really. Pretending to be refugees to come and mooch off people in the West is just not on. Thanks for finally telling us the truth Mr Moller! The people of the West don’t appreciate being lied to over and over again! http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/refugee-crisis-facts-un-michael-moller_uk_5734277ee4b01359f6866db0
Someone whos whole career is built on quack medicine ( unless he one of the few who do follow more mainstream ideas) will always pluck unsupported views out of the ether.
Its a common error to confuse weather with climate.
For Dunedin http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/dunedin
Monthy highest for April is 25 , historical average 24….. yyawn nothing to see but chooks flapping their wings who will never fly
Perhaps you could give the temperature data for your location to show the Dunedin numbers are against the trend.
NZ long term trend is 1C per century. Thats what its called baby, global warming.
So you arent with the medical community who believe most chiropractric is modern quackery ?
And mum or dad gets angry and mouthy under the pressure of it when they’re basically told to go away and come back in three weeks once they’ve seen the budgeter – for whom there’s actually a month long waiting list anyway.
“Oh well……trespass notice for you if you can’t behave !”
More in the narrative – “These people are scum who’ve done it to themselves !”
Theres room here for Labour, I need them to be the opposite of National before they get my vote, also imagine debating National on this with a Nat trying to justify homelessness. Like we saw with Key defending not paying tax (“if you are a Mexican worried about your countries inheritance laws”), they look weak & out of touch.
Why? Your post concerned climate change. I observed that Labour has nothing in the way of policy to deal with the issue. Is criticism of Labour fobidden on this site then?
[lprent: No – read the policy. Idiots who are just trolling lines written by a PR wanker and who don’t say anything worth reading are. If you’d have been serious then you would have pointed that out, and have been pointed to those really easy to google links like this page. It took me all of 10 seconds to find.
Banned for one week.
I figure that with your obviously piss-poor comprehension levels this will should hopefully be enough time to read the site policy. However if you get stuck on the big words – like policy and self-martyrdom, then I suggest you consult a dictionary. (Drat that may be beyond a trolls comprehension).
It is a book or a website that defines words.
Try this word as a test and clear description of you – “dickhead” ]
“You want a running mate who can take the fight to the other side with relish,” said a Clinton veteran. “Geography doesn’t matter, but attitude and talent and energy and bringing excitement to the campaign, Senator Warren does all that.”
In many ways, a Warren pick makes perfect sense. She’s widely respected and admired for her anti-Wall Street crusades, and she is already playing a lead role in the Democratic fight against Trump on social media. As a hero to many of the same people who currently support Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, her presence in the Clinton campaign could help unite the party. And she would bring extra firepower to what is sure to be a brutal general election.
There’s just one problem: She’s a woman. Is a presidential ticket big enough for two of them?
For voters who are already uneasy about the prospect of a woman in the White House (hint: mostly white men), a Warren addition might be the final straw. They’d go Trump for good. But it seems unlikely that those who pine for the days of Mad Men were going to vote for Clinton anyway. And some argue that Clinton doesn’t really need more white men, as they’re a declining portion of the electorate.
“NASA has made its first ever observations from the heart of a ‘magnetic reconnection’ event thanks to its Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS).
The mission, consisting of four identical spacecraft, was launched in March 2015 to observe these reactions in the magnetosphere – scientists had previously only witnessed reconnection in the laboratory…
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
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TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
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1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
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Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
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Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
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Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
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This cartoon by Sharon Murdoch is brilliant and sums up the government’s attitude to New Zealand and the super rich.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CicjGnrU4AAp7t9.jpg:large
John Key’s New Zealand.
People living in cars, garages, in cold mouldy houses and on the street.
Children go to school without food.
Our suicide rates, imprisonment rates, domestic abuse rates, obesity and levels of inequality soars.
Unemployment levels rise.
Debt levels keep climbing.
Housing both owned and rented becomes unaffordable to more and more people.
Meanwhile our corrupt and venal ruling class, led by an ex banker Key, takes the side of the global uber rich against the interests of NZ citizens.
What an ugly, selfish and cruel place we have become.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303946/auckland-housing-'we've-lost-the-plot‘
According to key on henry the cause of people living in cars is because we aren’t hard enough on moving people out of housing nz houses.
Ah, the merry go round approach. They’re using it for benefits and jobs so why not housing?
PM says, “contact Work and Income”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/80013933/prime-minister-john-key-says-homeless-families-should-contact-work-and-income
A cynical response.
What a repulsive man.
I don’t think Winz has Security guards at the door to keep people with weapons out. More likely the people trying to access all this HELP that Mr Key is confident that Winz is just waiting there to immediately assist. He would be “very surprised”!!! if Winz didn’t do this. I would be BLOODY AMAZED and SHOCKED! if they DID.
+1
Yeah, I’d be very surprised if the homeless man had ID to get past the guard.
@Paul, Ugly Selfish & Cruel sums it up . I am reminded of NZ in the days of John A Lee as described in ‘Children of the Poor’ sad and disgusting.
Of course it can. National have been ignoring poverty for decades now and haven’t lost a wink of sleep over it.
And probably charging a pretty penny for it as well.
Says all the right words while putting in place policies that prevent that from actually happening.
Yeah, like kicking people off of benefits for no reason whatsoever.
Well, I suppose that it will help a few rich people get richer. Won’t help the people actually in trouble though.
$1.2 billion of state money is apparently going to private landlords to house poor people in often poor housing. A lot of good quality state and public housing could be built or renovated with that money. With some firm regulations to keep rents down we could house everyone well again. This has happened in the past in NZ so could be done again.
It is probably higher than that. Amounts over AS limits are picked up by TAS.
I was appalled at Nick Smiths arrogance and denial on the weekend political shows. Especially so in light of the damning footage of people living in cars and the proliferation of families living in garages. The human cost especially for the kids brought up in those situations must be horrendous. Not the New Zealand I ever thought id see.
It seems his Namesake in Kaikoura is afflicted with a similar dose of arrogance.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/79943215/johns-kitchen-coordinator-janette-walker-labels-kaikoura-mp-stuart-smith-out-of-touch
No wonder he is too busy to attend to his constituents issues, he has been too busy spruiking baby formula for Chinese donors to the National Party.
Cowboy Agreed what a waste of space he is.
Crooked, amoral bastards !
(1) Deny, deny, deny the problem…..
(2) Belatedly acknowledge we’ve lost our way…..
(3) Declare that kids living in cars is not OK…..
(4) Mock-earnestly wank on about what must be done…..
(5) Borrow $3 billion for tax cuts to buy votes 2017…..
(6) 2018 – “What’s that you say, children living in cars ?”
From the top, altogether now, (1)…..(2)…..(3) etc etc etc.
Crooked, amoral bastards ! They simply do not care…..
Stuart Smith National MP……arrogant pig !
“Smith said he had visited various social agencies around Blenheim but had not spent time at John’s Kitchen. He said he had a full diary and had no plans to visit the Blenheim social service.”
Just like Todd Barclay. Another arrogant and entitled Nat in a safe rural seat.
I see Winston is taking it to the Nats with a public meeting in Gore next week. I think they smell blood with Barclay. Maybe he should stop in at Kaikoura on the way home.
Someone is making a bunch of money “decontaminating” state houses that’s for sure.
A 17 minute video which does a really good job of summing up what happening in USA. I’d suggest you skip across the clapping part at start and get into the real meat of the topic Abby Martin is talking about.
Like her observation that Bernie Sanders, for all the criticism that anyone may want to throw at him, has taken the essential message of Occupy: the sentiment the mainstream wanted to shut down and shut out – and he’s taken it right into the heart of the mainstream.
I think that’s true.
I have real problems with Sanders, but when Abby said that – I thought she is right. And I think the longer Sanders keeps in the race, the more the message will sink in.
17 more attack pieces on Sanders in the New York Journal last week. That is 16 more than against Trump. So he must be doing something right.
Is there a market in NZ for an Abby Martin or a Bernie Sanders? Andrew could maybe but where could he get a forum? TV? Radio? Newspaper? Live audience? With the News tied up by the Right and a well oiled machine to undermine alternative voices how can we get such a message as Abby’s out there? Oh Dear!
We have voices like Abby Martin. Did you forget you were commenting on an alternative news source ianmac.
The idea is not to despair. Indeed, voices are being heard. Ideas are out there. It’s not all about the labour party.
We have a voice, we only have this system, because we let it happen. And the more people react around the globe, slowly but surly people here will get the message too.
Because tax cut, and the free market are not delivering freedom and liberty for all.
Not sure what you mean by alternative news source though. We are interested so we click “play”, but can you imagine Puckish Rogue or Matthew Hooton clicking on?
You may have noticed I don’t read much NZ news, a few links from here. For me it’s the evening report, and scoop every-other day. I just don’t do the so call MSM or as I call them, the corporate media.
I read a lot of international news, and that take on NZ is rather different. Actually, I find it funny when I read the likes of Puckish and others, they have no idea what the rest of the world thinks. And seem to enjoy it that way.
I don’t care what Puckish or Hooten click or not. I’m more interested in a informed, engaged, hopeful, and democratic readership.
The point is that many of us on the “Left” are sympathetic to the urgency for a fair and inclusive society, but this does not reach the PRs or the Hootens. The Key believers who I know are allergic to any such talk. So the question is still how do we engage at least “middle” swinging voters?
“Prime Minister John Key has signalled National will campaign in 2017 on a $3 billion package of tax cuts.”
English says not likely. Key says yes.
See what they are doing? Testing the waters since tax cuts benefit mostly the rich, it may not be politic to actually deliver more tax cuts for the rich.
Yeah – I’ve just read that as well. Today’s Herald online. You think they”re testing the waters, ianmac ? Maybe they are.
Or maybe they’re preparing everyone for a big fudging of the country’s economy (ie hey we have a surplus, we can now give that away to our voters !) Whichever it is, I’m pretty sure we’re going to see some big pork barrel politics rolled out next year.
Yuk ! and it’ll be very grubby …….
So even less for the unemployed , abused women, mental health, schools, hospitals, the poor, the vulnerable……
Ugly, selfish, cruel.
2016 New Zealand.
+1
I think Jenny, that previous tax cuts were seen as good for the rich and the Middle-poor saw it as pretty mean. So they are careful this time to make sure that it is their supporters who are happy. Litmus test?
Mean while national debt
NZ$ 116,890,480,060
Interest
5,577,213,742 per year
And if the government simply created the money that it needs then that interest bill would disappear.
Yes.
I am attracted to the notion that the gov create money to say build state houses, and then use the income to help repay the notional debt.
Keeps the bankers out of the cycle too.
Worked well for the first Labour government.
Labour Social credit coalition.
Yes!!
Another distraction.
It will be if you vote for us deal just before the election their will be cuts to get more wait till after the election.
‘Boris Johnson likens EU drive for ‘superstate’ to Hitler’s, prompts shower of anger’
https://www.rt.com/uk/343090-johnson-eu-hitler-napoleon/
“A frantic backlash has followed a remark by London’s ex-mayor, Boris Johnson, who said modern EU bureaucracy pursues the same goals as previous European “integrators” Napoleon and Hitler did and thus creates a “massive democratic void.”…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303970/electricity-industry-shake-up-on-the-cards
At the moment, the cost of getting electricity from the source to the consumer is spread evenly….regardless of where you live.
This is about to change….
“Based on all the signals from the Electricity Authority to date, I am picking that the Transmission Pricing Methodology will go significantly towards a beneficiary-pays approach rather than a one-price-for-everyone that is in place at the moment,” he said.
“It is likely to produce much more efficient investments in transmission assets over time.”
In its proposal last June, the authority estimated some power bills would fall and some stay the same. However Auckland and Northland would pay 4.5 percent more and the Far North and the West Coast 10 percent more.”
OK…so power users are now “beneficiaries” and those “beneficiaries” living in two of the most economically challenged areas of New Zealand will be paying 10% more for transmission charges.
Consumers in the Far North already pay eye watering power bills…
Marlborough had its own dam to supply much of our electricity, but under the Bradford reforms small dams such as ours were instead given to the main grid. Our daily line charge is $1.99 per day or $61.69 per month. In the city I believe it is far less per day.
So I think the line charges will increase under the User Pays plan that the Electricity Authority is looking for. And those in the country at the end of a line will pay more. Great for Dairy farms?
Our charge is $2.18 per day in city.
Ouch dv. Recently I changed from my $1.99 per day to 33cents per day by signing up as a Low User. We pay more per Kw @ 33cents per kw. But as long as we stay under 8,000 kw per year we gain on the deal. ie 22kw per day is the break even point.
I read somewhere yesterday that a person working for a provider (Mercury?) was told to avoid offering Low User and try to divert customers onto different contract. Mmm.
Damn I hadn’t noticed till I noticed!!!
Maybe that was because they are trying to protect people who sign up for the low rate getting pummeled when they go over the limit. It’s not going to be suitable for most customers with families.
User pays strikes again by pushing the price up. More profits for the already rich sourced from the most impoverished.
You’d almost think that the government was trying to push people out of those places by making it so that the people already there can’t afford to live there. Is this about cleaning out the impoverished from desirable areas to make way for the uber rich that NZs becoming a bolt-hole for?
Straight out of the “How To Make a Zombie Town” manual.
But the opportunity is there for those towns to get out of the system entirely, via schemes such as the Blueskin Power Co-operative.
It’s the opposite. It is passing costs on to those that are not located close to power sources. That should advantage many regional consumers and businesses who live close to power sources. This is good for most places except Auckland north. The west coast would be better off if they had managed to be allowed to build the hydro schemes they wanted
Wow. Do you actually read the tripe that you write?
Advantaging people who live closer to power supply than those that live further away pushes people who live further away to move closer thus causing those regional towns to close down, to become Zombie Towns.
Most of the so called zombie towns are closer to power supplies than Auckland . So cheaper power would (in theory) help make them more attractive and less zombie like.
You want to deny much of regional NZ the benefit of lower power costs by forcing them to pay the same as wealthy aucklanders
So you think that relatively rich Auckland should be subsidised by relatively poor Dunedin?
As it is if there’s any subsidies, and I doubt if there are, it will be from Auckland to the rest of the country. If this change goes ahead then there really will be subsidies – from the rest of the country to Auckland as the rest of the countries prices go up – especially those in poorer areas.
At a national level it really doesn’t cost any more to maintain the lines in Northland than in Auckland. Charging some areas more and some areas less isn’t about economics or incentives but about making more profit for the lines companies/generators.
Maybe not (although I suspect there’s more in the way of tree trimming and suchlike in rural areas, and farther travel times for the crews).
However, the cost of getting the power from the source to the local 240V area would vary wildly according to distance (both in maintenance and power loss), durability, and accessibility.
You’re wrong. We are talking about the relative cost of shifting power from a generator to a consumer. It is in fact a lot more expensive to build 100km of power line than it is to build 50km.
Auckland has no substantial power plants nearby except Huntley, which doesn’t run all the time and is reducing output. So Auckland’s power has to travel a lot further than say Dunedin’s. You also get greater line losses. Yet Dunedin power companies are basically charged the same per mw as Auckland power companies and for no other reason than it’s easier.
It is not in the interest of the lines companies to promote a distributed renewable generation model and they have by anti-competitive and pricing models held the inevitable move to such a system back for as long as they could . now the end game begins
Good job I didn’t say build then isn’t it.
And fairer considering that we all paid to build the infrastructure equally.
Splitting things up like this actually breaks the economy and the scale that building nationally produces. That’s what we’ve been seeing for the last thirty years and why things keep getting more expensive.
You cant just maintain the grid you sometimes have to build new stuff. Just recently 470m was spent on new lines in auckland. Another billion was spent on lines to Auckland. All this gets paid for by consumers. Your method makes it much more expensive because there is no pressure to keep down costs. If aucklanders were faced with fully funding the infrastructure they benefit from, they might have gone for less costly options. Remember much of this new investment was the result of socialized transpowwer not actually maintaining the network adequately.
Yeah, but do you appreciate the factors involved – distance, voltage, conductor size, equipment sizing, selection and siting, workmanship, power factor, unbalanced/unequal phase/load distribution, leakage, overloading, abnormal operating conditions – and that’s only transmission.
And to my mind, a better system would be to require those that use over a standard amount – a higher usage charge.
I remember a few years ago, hearing that some households have a power bill of over $700/wk. This usage reflected the need to keep the pool heated, the landscaping lights on, the multiple power vampire appliances on standby.
At the time, a discussion was being had regarding the necessity to upgrade the power infrastructure. I thought then – and I still do – that charges (like taxes) should be progressive, if you are using significantly more than a standard amount for the number of people living in your household then you pay a higher usage charge.
Yep. Nationalised power generation and reticulation. Each household/business gets a set amount per month free (fully covered by taxes) which is enough to run a household on and after that they get charged and as they use more they get charged more per kilowatt.
This implements actual supply and demand. The people who demand more pay more. As it is we actually have it around the other way with those who demand more paying less per unit. This incentivises incredibly poor economics.
I think National are in deep trouble and are becomingly increasingly desperate.
Key’s “ejection” from debating chamber, Matt Hooton’s “deeply “sanitised column, and now “look here, tax cuts” are panic responses to the current mess.
NZers are not happy at links to corruption and the smirching of our country’s reputation. More principled conservatives are uneasy.
The TPP ram-it-through-as-quickly-as-possible approach is not going down well, the housing situation is beyond crisis and younger people are becoming more politised as they see their future being affected detrimentally by poor current political choices.
Parata’s school funding changes will probably initiate a revolt…all good!
Well it is possible that National are in deep trouble I don’t think they are, they certainly would have been had the Panama Papers come up with anything substantial but as it is its reinforced the notion that Labour are crying wolf and, surprisingly to my mind at least, that the Greens are more level headed of the opposition
I suspect that the worries you share are not shared with the voting public however as its my own opinion I may well be wrong so, unfortunately, we’ll just have to wait for the next opinion polls to come out
I think it’ll be bad news for Labour, minor negative news for National, good news for Winston First and minor positive news for the Greens in that whatever voted National loses will go to Winston and some of what Labour loses will go to the Greens
+100 TMM…no matter what Hooton and jonkey’s Nact supporters spin….jonkey has been shown up !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503426&objectid=11639520
According to the Director General of the UN office in Geneva, the number one reason people leave Syria is not to escape war, it’s to find educational opportunities for their vast numbers of children – well their solution is really simple: stop mindless shooting, build your own universities, and work hard to pay for them like we in the West do – simple really. Pretending to be refugees to come and mooch off people in the West is just not on. Thanks for finally telling us the truth Mr Moller! The people of the West don’t appreciate being lied to over and over again!
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/refugee-crisis-facts-un-michael-moller_uk_5734277ee4b01359f6866db0
Any links to IPCC for that ?
“My guess is that we will hit 2 deg C by 2030.”
Surely it will all come right by vertebral subluxation or some such discovery
[Flaming and trolling. Shifting to Open Mike.] – Bill
You think that the IPPC knows what CV thinks? CV just posted his best guess based on being informed.
“Surely it will all come right by vertebral subluxation or some such discovery”
That’s out and out flaming. Reread the post and see if you still think picking a fight is appropriate.
Someone whos whole career is built on quack medicine ( unless he one of the few who do follow more mainstream ideas) will always pluck unsupported views out of the ether.
Its a common error to confuse weather with climate.
For Dunedin
http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/dunedin
Monthy highest for April is 25 , historical average 24….. yyawn nothing to see but chooks flapping their wings who will never fly
Troll. There’s probably a special name for denialist trolls, but I can’t be arsed with someone so blatantly stupid.
The name is definitely not “drolls” 🙂
Heh. I suppose it is a bit much to ask to be entertained while being trolled.
How about a trOllnialist 🙂
Perhaps you could give the temperature data for your location to show the Dunedin numbers are against the trend.
NZ long term trend is 1C per century. Thats what its called baby, global warming.
So you arent with the medical community who believe most chiropractric is modern quackery ?
Fuck off troll.
🙂
So you have better numbers than NIWA?
I leave it up to the experts
Little steps up….http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/80013933/prime-minister-john-key-says-homeless-families-should-contact-work-and-income
“Labour leader Andrew Little: PM ‘out of touch’ with families in hardship”
If the comments section is anything to go by (and why not?) JK and Co are in deepest of smelly stuff…..
Tried to imagine a car family arriving at Work and Income asking for accommodation. Waiting list? Sorry. Can’t help.
And mum or dad gets angry and mouthy under the pressure of it when they’re basically told to go away and come back in three weeks once they’ve seen the budgeter – for whom there’s actually a month long waiting list anyway.
“Oh well……trespass notice for you if you can’t behave !”
More in the narrative – “These people are scum who’ve done it to themselves !”
Theres room here for Labour, I need them to be the opposite of National before they get my vote, also imagine debating National on this with a Nat trying to justify homelessness. Like we saw with Key defending not paying tax (“if you are a Mexican worried about your countries inheritance laws”), they look weak & out of touch.
https://imperatorfish.com/2016/05/10/a-brief-history-of-the-labour-party/
For those that have a sense of humour click on the link, I’m sure its not completely serious
Just as well Labour’s got such progressive policies to deal with climate change then, isn’t it?
[Shoddy attempt to derail. Shifted to Open Mike] – Bill
The RWNJs have obviously had their C/T lines handed to them.
Why? Your post concerned climate change. I observed that Labour has nothing in the way of policy to deal with the issue. Is criticism of Labour fobidden on this site then?
[lprent: No – read the policy. Idiots who are just trolling lines written by a PR wanker and who don’t say anything worth reading are. If you’d have been serious then you would have pointed that out, and have been pointed to those really easy to google links like this page. It took me all of 10 seconds to find.
Banned for one week.
I figure that with your obviously piss-poor comprehension levels this will should hopefully be enough time to read the site policy. However if you get stuck on the big words – like policy and self-martyrdom, then I suggest you consult a dictionary. (Drat that may be beyond a trolls comprehension).
It is a book or a website that defines words.
Try this word as a test and clear description of you – “dickhead” ]
Warren on the ticket and Trump really will get his hate on.
“You want a running mate who can take the fight to the other side with relish,” said a Clinton veteran. “Geography doesn’t matter, but attitude and talent and energy and bringing excitement to the campaign, Senator Warren does all that.”
In many ways, a Warren pick makes perfect sense. She’s widely respected and admired for her anti-Wall Street crusades, and she is already playing a lead role in the Democratic fight against Trump on social media. As a hero to many of the same people who currently support Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, her presence in the Clinton campaign could help unite the party. And she would bring extra firepower to what is sure to be a brutal general election.
There’s just one problem: She’s a woman. Is a presidential ticket big enough for two of them?
For voters who are already uneasy about the prospect of a woman in the White House (hint: mostly white men), a Warren addition might be the final straw. They’d go Trump for good. But it seems unlikely that those who pine for the days of Mad Men were going to vote for Clinton anyway. And some argue that Clinton doesn’t really need more white men, as they’re a declining portion of the electorate.
http://qz.com/684589/in-an-election-dominated-by-misogyny-a-clinton-warren-ticket-might-just-work/
A good pick but unlikely.
Democrats have their minimum core 18 states, which they have won every election since 1992, with 242 electoral votes
They just need an extra one or two like Florida , and 28 EVs, to win the Presidency,
Logic says a figire who can bring a state like Florida or another region has best chance of being VP pick
So did they really land an American man on the moon or not?…imo NOT! ( the biggest USA porky of all time?)
‘Invisible maelstrom: NASA flies spacecraft through magnetic explosions above Earth (VIDEO)’
https://www.rt.com/viral/343121-nasa-magnetic-explosions-spacecraft/
“NASA has made its first ever observations from the heart of a ‘magnetic reconnection’ event thanks to its Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS).
The mission, consisting of four identical spacecraft, was launched in March 2015 to observe these reactions in the magnetosphere – scientists had previously only witnessed reconnection in the laboratory…